Realstone Sustainable Finance Scholarship 2025

To advance sustainable finance, Realstone SA, a Swiss real estate investment firm dedicated to fostering sustainability and innovation in collaboration with the Swiss Finance Institute at EPFL, has granted the "Realstone Sustainable Finance Scholarship" to Aarav Desai, a first-year master’s student. This scholarship honors his exceptional academic achievements, his thoughtful understanding of the challenges in sustainable investment markets, and his demonstrated commitment to advancing sustainable finance. This award is funded by a generous donation of CHF 20,000 from Realstone, providing CHF 5,000 per semester throughout her master’s program.

He combines strong academic excellence with a clear commitment to sustainable finance. He completed his undergraduate studies in Computer Science with highest distinction, earning a 3.9 GPA and multiple academic honors, alongside additional training in computational modeling and cognitive science. During a private-equity internship, he gained exposure to ESG-integrated investment practices and identified a key challenge in the field: the lack of transparent, real-time impact data to support sustainable investment decisions. This experience deepened his interest in climate fintech and motivated his ambition to develop a blockchain-based system for real-time verification of environmental outcomes. Now pursuing graduate studies at EPFL in financial engineering, he aims to combine his technical expertise in AI, modeling and digital finance with a strong focus on measurable sustainability impact.